Ottoman - Bizantin city case, Tirana - birth of a city

The expansion of Islam did multiply the number of cities to the edge of the desert, transforming the nomadic tribes in urban populations. For a good Muslim cannot be a better practice of the religion if not in the city, in the Friday Mosque for common prayers. Life in the city is considered a condition of moral perfection and been fixed in one place, giving up the nomadic life. The urban culture in Islam is formed and developed through a series of contributions, derived from the traditions of construction and urban structures of the pre-Islamic city. Arabia and the countries of first conquest, gravitated into the orbit of Hellenistic and Roman world on one hand, and on the other on the Persian world orbit. Inside the ancient pattern, appeared new elements that will become hallmarks of the Islamic city: the palace, the mosque and the rows of shops that prefigure the ‘souks’ of more mature urban forms. The Islamic urbanism rejects any intentional and planned process, in which the city would be first designed and then implemented. The city had always been a spontaneous creation for the Muslim community. Everything will continue to persist even after the advent of Islam, with the addition of the religion and politics. Islam is a religion of the creative city: the very choice of the site is determined by religious factors. Tirana was born as an variation of an Islamic city typology. Through the years appeared various urban typology design in Albanian territory. A part of the Islamic city tissue was replaced. Analyzing and understanding how the city has been created, explains how it function. In this way we understand the importance of this urban tissue which we can still find in Tirana

Assessing the CSR and Community Development Programmes of Lafarge Africa Plc in Cross River State

There is a growing consciousness among the global business community that corporations or business organisations can no longer act independently of the individuals or key stakeholders in their business operations, especially members of the host communities. Part of the realisation stems from the fact that creating and maintaining mutually beneficial relationship with host communities is highly dependent on the extent to which firms contribute to the sustainable development of the community and its inhabitants. This study assesses the Corporate Social Responsibility and community development programmes of Lafarge Africa Plc in Cross River State, against the backdrop of sustainable community development. The survey research design was used to gather data for the study; and interview, group discussion and questionnaire were utilised as research instruments to obtain information for the study. This study was premised on the stakeholder theory, which states that companies or firms should be accountable to their stakeholders, which are the group of individuals that are affected by the firms’ activities. Findings revealed that proactive CSR is an essential mechanism for driving sustainable community development. This was evident by the contribution of Lafarge’s intervention in the advancement of the host communities at different levels. However, the company’s approaches to CSR still partly trail the path of philanthropic or charitable donation as most projects were selected and executed without due recourse to the people’s input. Based on the above discoveries, the researchers recommend that the company should adopt a more participatory approach in selecting the kind of development project to embark on based on needs priority of the people. Also, the researchers suggests that rather than relying on reactive or make-shift measures to manage its relationship with the people, the company should adopt a more proactive communication approach in order to avert potential altercations with members of the host communities

The Nigerian Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and the Right to Know: Bridging the Gap between Principle and Practice

Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights adopted in 1948 declares that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Laudable as the declaration is said to be, the media and citizens of many countries are yet to fully enjoy privileges provided by this law. It is also factual that even in countries where the FOI laws exist; different institutional setbacks seem to have stalled its effective application. This paper therefore set out to examine the extent to which the FOI Act, signed into law in Nigeria in 2011, has facilitated free access to public information as well as guaranteed the public’s Right to Know. The survey research design was used to gather information from the respondents, who were mainly media practitioners and interview and questionnaire were used as instruments of data collection.  Findings revealed that although the passage of the Freedom of Information Act was regarded as a welcome development, information seekers have not been able to fully utilise the law to their advantage to hold public officials accountable to the people. Such challenges as ignorance, denial of access to public information by public officers, executive immunity, exclusion of the private sectors and rigid legal procedures were some of the factors respondents said have impeded accessing public information through the instrumentality of the Freedom of Information Act. And these impediments have made the existence of the FOI Act more in principle than in practice. The researchers therefore recommend that, among other things, information seekers should strive to know their rights within the ambit of the law and public officials should be made to comply with Section 2 of the FOI Act, which mandates them to properly keep public records in a manner that facilitates public access to such records. Also, the law should be amended to cover access to information held by the private sectors. Keywords: Right to know, FOI Law, Information Seekers, Public Official

Stakeholders Advocacy and the Campaign against Malaria Epidemic in Cross River State: A Social Change Perspective

Stakeholders’ engagement, communication and management is germane to the success of any given social change campaign; most especially in campaigns that are aimed at influencing and changing people’s negative attitudes and behaviours. The task of changing negative health attitudes and practice cannot be left in the hands of the health practitioners/caregivers and the mass media alone. Consequently, the paper strongly makes a case for the need to involve stakeholders at the community levels – the Chiefs, Village Heads, Religious Leaders, Opinion Leaders and other well-meaning individuals – in the campaign against the scourge of malaria parasite. It is believed that while the mass media are popular in creating public health awareness and education; they can do just close to nothing in deciding how the people receive and react to the messages, especially in the area of attitude and behaviour change. Therefore, involving key stakeholders at the community level, who are highly respected by the people, in the campaign will help to consolidate the efforts of the campaign planners. The survey research method was used to gather data for the study and the interview and questionnaire were used as instruments for data collection. The study was premised on the stakeholder’s theory and Participatory Development 154 Theory. The findings revealed that certain cultural practices still militate against the success of the fight against malaria scourge in Cross Rive State, especially the campaign on the use of the Malaria Treated Bed Nets. It was also found out that the level of awareness on the availability of Insecticide Treated Bed Nets was very high as all the respondents affirmed that they were aware of the availability of the Nets. However, most of the people who said they have the nets do not use them based on one reason or the other. These include: general inconvenience associated with sleeping in the net like intense heat or offensive smell of the chemical used in treating the net as well as the general believe that Nets are either meant for babies of dead bodies. The researcher therefore recommends that Anti-malaria campaign planners should actively involve the leaders of every community in the programme planning and execution. This will make the work of the campaign planners easy because their opinions are well respected by the people.Keywords: Stakeholders Advocacy, MalariaEpidemic, Social Chang

Intelligent optimisation of analogue circuits using particle swarm optimisation, genetic programming and genetic folding

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University London.This research presents various intelligent optimisation methods which are: genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimisation (PSO), artificial bee colony algorithm (ABCA), firefly algorithm (FA) and bacterial foraging optimisation (BFO). It attempts to minimise analogue electronic filter and amplifier circuits, taking a cascode amplifier design as a case study, and utilising the above-mentioned intelligent optimisation algorithms with the aim of determining the best among them to be used. Small signal analysis (SSA) conversion of the cascode circuit is performed while mesh analysis is applied to transform the circuit to matrices form. Computer programmes are developed in Matlab using the above mentioned intelligent optimisation algorithms to minimise the cascode amplifier circuit. The objective function is based on input resistance, output resistance, power consumption, gain, upperfrequency band and lower frequency band. The cascode circuit result presented, applied the above-mentioned existing intelligent optimisation algorithms to optimise the same circuit and compared the techniques with the one using Nelder-Mead and the original circuit simulated in PSpice. Four circuit element types (resistors, capacitors, transistors and operational amplifier (op-amp)) are targeted using the optimisation techniques and subsequently compared to the initial circuit. The PSO based optimised result has proven to be best followed by that of GA optimised technique regarding power consumption reduction and frequency response. This work modifies symbolic circuit analysis in Matlab (MSCAM) tool which utilises Netlist from PSpice or from simulation to generate matrices. These matrices are used for optimisation or to compute circuit parameters. The tool is modified to handle both active and passive elements such as inductors, resistors, capacitors, transistors and op-amps. The transistors are transformed into SSA and op-amp use the SSA that is easy to implement in programming. Results are presented to illustrate the potential of the algorithm. Results are compared to PSpice simulation and the approach handled larger matrices dimensions compared to that of existing symbolic circuit analysis in Matlab tool (SCAM). The SCAM formed matrices by adding additional rows and columns due to how the algorithm was developed which takes more computer resources and limit its performance. Next to this, this work attempts to reduce component count in high-pass, low-pass, and all- pass active filters. Also, it uses a lower order filter to realise same results as higher order filter regarding frequency response curve. The optimisers applied are GA, PSO (the best two methods among them) and Nelder-Mead (the worst method) are used subsequently for the filters optimisation. The filters are converted into their SSA while nodal analysis is applied to transform the circuit to matrices form. High-pass, low-pass, and all- pass active filters results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique. Results presented have shown that with a computer code, a lower order op-amp filter can be applied to realise the same results as that of a higher order one. Furthermore, PSO can realise the best results regarding frequency response for the three results, followed by GA whereas Nelder- Mead has the worst results. Furthermore, this research introduced genetic folding (GF), MSCAM, and automatically simulated Netlist into existing genetic programming (GP), which is a new contribution in this work, which enhances the development of independent Matlab toolbox for the evolution of passive and active filter circuits. The active filter circuit evolution especially when operational amplifier is involved as a component is of it first kind in circuit evolution. In the work, only one software package is used instead of combining PSpice and Matlab in electronic circuit simulation. This saves the elapsed time for moving the simulation between the two platforms and reduces the cost of subscription. The evolving circuit from GP using Matlab simulation is automatically transformed into a symbolic Netlist also by Matlab simulation. The Netlist is fed into MSCAM; where MSCAM uses it to generate matrices for the simulation. The matrices enhance frequency response analysis of low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, band-stop of active and passive filter circuits. After the circuit evolution using the developed GP, PSO is then applied to optimise some of the circuits. The algorithm is tested with twelve different circuits (five examples of the active filter, four examples of passive filter circuits and three examples of transistor amplifier circuits) and the results presented have shown that the algorithm is efficient regarding design.Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) through University of Calabar, Nigeria

A review of regression models employed for predicting diffuse solar radiation in North-Western Africa

The knowledge of diffuse solar radiation (Hd) is of almost importance for determining the gross primary productivity, net ecosystem, exchange of carbon dioxide, light use efficiency and changing colour of the sky. However, routine measurement of Hd is not available in most locations in North-Western Africa. During the past 36 years in order to predict Hd in the horizontal surface on hourly, daily and monthly mean basis, several regression models have been developed for numerous locations in North-Western Africa. As a result, several input parameters have been utilized and different functional forms applied. The regression models so far utilized were classified into six main categories and presented based on the input parameters applied. The models were further reclassified into numerous main groups and finally represented according to their developing year. In general, 188 regression models, 33 functional forms and 20 groups were reported in literature for predicting Hd in North-Western Africa. The regression and soft computing models developed within North-Western Africa and across the globe were examined in order to determine the best technique of prediction. The result revealed that soft computing models are more suitable for predicting Hd in North-Western Africa and across the globe. Citation: Ogbulezie, J., Ushie, O., and Nwokolo, S. (2017). A review of regression models employed for predicting diffuse solar radiation in North-Western Africa. Trends in Renewable Energy, 3(2), 160-206. DOI: 10.17737/tre.2017.3.2.004

Output Feedback Adaptive Optimal Control of Affine Nonlinear systems with a Linear Measurement Model

Real-world control applications in complex and uncertain environments require adaptability to handle model uncertainties and robustness against disturbances. This paper presents an online, output-feedback, critic-only, model-based reinforcement learning architecture that simultaneously learns and implements an optimal controller while maintaining stability during the learning phase. Using multiplier matrices, a convenient way to search for observer gains is designed along with a controller that learns from simulated experience to ensure stability and convergence of trajectories of the closed-loop system to a neighborhood of the origin. Local uniform ultimate boundedness of the trajectories is established using a Lyapunov-based analysis and demonstrated through simulation results, under mild excitation conditions.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to 2023 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Application

Étude numérique d'une connexion boulonnée aveugle entre un tablier en aluminium sur poutres en acier

L'utilisation de l’aluminium dans les ponts au Canada n'est pas nouvelle, mais elle est moins répandue que celle des matériaux plus traditionnels comme l'acier, le béton ou le bois, et ce, même si l'aluminium possède plusieurs propriétés qui rendent son utilisation intéressante. L'aluminium présente plusieurs caractéristiques qui favorisent son utilisation, telles que : sa très bonne résistance à la corrosion, sa légèreté, ainsi qu'une bonne formabilité. Pour ces raisons, l'aluminium est envisagé pour la production de tabliers de ponts fabriqués à partir d'extrusions multicellulaires. Néanmoins, ces tabliers doivent être reliés à des poutres en acier par un assemblage rapide et facile qui pourra en même temps répondre à critères techniques. Compte tenu de la difficulté d'accéder à l'intérieur des cellules extrudées, l’utilisation d'un boulon à haute résistance n'était pas possible, d'où l'idée d'étudier numériquement l'utilisation de deux boulons aveugles Ajax ONESIDE et BOM. Il a été déterminé, par des simulations numériques avec la méthode des éléments finis, que ces deux boulons ont la capacité de permettre la libre expansion / contraction de l'aluminium, en maintenant une action composite avec et sans la présence du freinage, ainsi qu'en générant une usure de quelques micromètres à la surface de contact, sans aucun risque d’initiation de fissure. Une étude comparative avec un boulon à haute résistance a été réalisée afin de classer ces boulons par comportement, et il a été montré que le boulon à haute résistance offre une meilleure résistance au freinage quel que soit l'effet thermique sur l'assemblage. En revanche, en analysant son comportement vis-à-vis le phénomène du fretting, on constate qu'une apparition probable de fissures associée à une usure mineure peut se produire au niveau de la zone de contact tête boulon/ platelage.This research project revolves around the innovative use of aluminum in bridges. The use of aluminum in highway bridges has received special attention in recent years. This material offers several qualities compared to traditional materials such as concrete or steel, an aluminum bridge solution offers enormous potential for the construction of modern road bridges.The optimization of a new aluminum bridge solution and the design application still remains a difficult task. One of the most optimized solutions is the use of a multicellular extrusion profile. However, this solution presents a unique challenge in connecting the bridge deck to the girders using the traditional assembly method, given the difficulty of access to the interior of the extruded cells. The objective of this project is to establish a methodology to analyze two types of blind bolts as an alternative assembly solution using numerical simulation. Through this project, it was determined numerically that these two bolts (Ajax ONESIDE and BOM) have the ability to allow thermal expansion and contraction of aluminum in case of temperature fluctuation, given that the coefficient of thermal expansion of aluminum is twice that of steel. The possibility to minimize the sliding that may occur during the thermal loading was also studied, the two blind bolts offer good resistance with and without the presence of braking. Which allows a possible transfer of this force to the foundations. A special numerical model was prepared for the prediction of the fretting, showed a very good consistency with analytical and literature results. This model was used to analyze the fretting for each bolt at the surface of contact between the bolt head and the aluminum plate. Following the results found, we have observed that the blind bolts will undergo a few micrometers of wear, while for the standard bolt a probable appearance of cracks associated with minor wear may occur at the contact area

Soudage par ultrasons de composites à fibres végétales et matrice thermoplastique

Ultrasonic welding represents a promising assembly method for thermoplastic matrix composites. Its speed, potential for automation, and ease of recycling for the assembled structures are among its key advantages. However, applying this technique to natural fiber composites poses challenges due to the temperature sensitivity of these materials. The objective of this thesis is to assess the feasibility of such assemblies and determine parameter combinations for achieving optimal performance.The material used for this study is a 2/2 twill weave flax/polypropylene ply with comingled fibers. The first stage of this work involved optimizing the manufacturing process using thermocompression for laminates from this material. In this regard, the relationships between manufacturing parameters (pressure, temperature, and heating duration), microstructure, and the mechanical behavior of flax/PP laminates were examined.The second part of the work focuses on ultrasonic welding of these materials. The process parameters are initially optimized using a designed experiment to maximize the shear strength of single lap joints. Building on these initial data, a detailed study of the influence of each parameter is conducted, supported by temperature measurements during the process, mechanical characterization of test specimens, and morphological analysis of cross-sections and fracture surfaces of the test specimens. The results indicate that judicious combinations of parameters enable continuous welding without visible degradation of flax fibers or alteration of substrates.Finally, the last part investigates the influence of fiber orientation at the welded interface on assembly performance. To address this, original stacking sequences leading to laminate isotropy properties are employed to eliminate the disruptive effects of stiffness changes of the specimen depending on orientation. This demonstrates that the influence of fiber orientation remains weak and could be disregarded in the context of numerical modeling of welded zones.Le soudage par ultrasons représente une méthode d'assemblage prometteuse pour les composites à matrice thermoplastique. Sa rapidité, la possibilité d'automatisation ainsi que le recyclage facilité des structures ainsi assemblées font partie de ses principaux avantages. Son application à des composites à fibres naturelles présente encore des défis en raison de la sensibilité de ces matériaux à la température. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'évaluer la faisabilité de tels assemblages et de déterminer les combinaisons de paramètres permettant d'obtenir des performances optimales.Le matériau employé pour cette étude est un pli tissé d'armure sergé 2/2 lin/polypropylène à fibres comêlées. La première étape de ce travail a été d'optimiser le procédé de fabrication par thermocompression de stratifiés à partir de ce matériau. A cette fin, les liens entre les paramètres de fabrication (pression, température et durée de chauffage), la microstructure et le comportement mécanique des stratifiés de lin/PP ont été examinés.La seconde partie du travail est consacrée à l'assemblage par ultrasons de ces matériaux. Les paramètres du process sont tout d'abord optimisés en employant un plan d'expérience de façon à maximiser la résistance au cisaillement de joints simple recouvrement. A partir de ces premières données, une étude fine de l'influence de chacun de ces paramètres est menée en s'appuyant sur la mesure des températures subies par le matériau durant le process, la caractérisation mécanique des éprouvettes, ainsi que l'analyse morphologique des coupes transversales et des faciès de rupture des éprouvettes. Les résultats montrent que des combinaisons judicieuses de paramètres permettent d'obtenir un soudage continu sans dégradation visible des fibres de lin ni altération des substrats.Enfin, la dernière partie s'intéresse à l'influence de l'orientation des fibres à l'interface soudée sur les performances de l'assemblage. Pour cela, des séquences originales d'empilement conduisant à des propriétés d'isotropie du stratifié sont employées afin d'éliminer les effets perturbateurs des changements de raideur de l'éprouvette selon l'orientation. Ceci permet de montrer que l'influence de l'orientation des fibres reste faible et pourrait donc être négligée dans le cadre d'une modélisation numérique des zones soudées